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greypetrel · 1 month

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15 Lines of Dialogue

Rules: Share 15 or fewer lines of dialogue from an OC, ideally lines that capture the character/personality/vibe of the OC. Bonus points for just using the dialogue without other details about the scene, but you're free to include those as well!

Tagged by @shivunin, thank you so much Mo! It's been so fun. Also a nightmare because I chose Aisling and my goodness someone make her shut up please. Referenced from Monster Fic (which is still getting views?? :"D Welp.), This one Radha fic , this prompt . Five minutes of silence for the one poop line that didn't make it to the final cut of this meme. Always remembered.

🦄✨ Aisling Lavellan ✨🦄

"We look like a swan and the ugly chick of a cuckoo.”

“I do. He’s just been mistreated. The Idiot started training him as a war horse, but it didn’t go well. He’s been beaten and whipped and given little food for too long, and relegated to do the work horse when he’s not. He just needs to learn that people can be trusted again, but he’ll be stronger and swifter than all the others, I’m sure.”

“Hey, I’m trying to stay in the role. I was told I’m a religious figure and I should behave! You’re ruining the mood, people need to think I’m the Herald of Andraste for real and that you can’t laugh! Stop, or I’ll have to sing a very lewd drinking song, you’ll laugh loudly, and they’ll all know!”

“I am aware I must sound like a child. But I believe people are good, deep down. And that everyone deserves a second chance.”

“In the case I’ll tragically fall to my death on horseback, I’ll leave a note to allow you to talk to my funeral and tell everyone that you told me so, is it all right?”

“The bad and the good, Cole. The good is better if there’s bad, like when it stops raining and the sun shines again, or when springs melts the snow and the flowers grow. But, humans can’t choose one, you know it. There must be snow and rain and thunder to make the flowers grow. I’m fine, don’t look at me. What do you want to do?”

“Honestly, I think all the time that you would have made a way better job as Inquisitor, if I hadn’t convinced the Keeper to send me and not you. You would have done a better job as First than I ever did, if… And I’m… I’m trying to prove that it’s not so, that I can be good too. Been doing it all my life, honestly.”

“Mh. I’m not really sure. Care to try again? For science?”

“You wished for a Cinderella, your Grace, but I am a bad one. You would know if you ever had paid more attention to anyone that’s not yourself.”

“But then, even if I feel nauseous and I hate everything and I would beg you to just take the title from me, I can’t take it, it’s too much and I’m just me… Then I remember that if I had run, I’d never met any of you, and you’ve all become family, and… And I do believe that we’re doing something good to the world. And that’s… That’s enough when the walls seems to loom upon me and I think that I can’t shoulder another impossible decision that shouldn’t be mine to take.”

“What if you explain and nothing changes? I know about loneliness, and of thinking you don’t deserve the love you get. You don’t have to face it alone.”

“I know. But I can still do some good, and the important people will remember me. I don’t care for the rest.”

“I’ve been alone ever since people started calling me the Herald of fucking Andraste, but I guess you wouldn’t understand being imposed by others a part that means nothing to you and you hate, right, Blackwall?”

“But if thinking he deserves another chance makes me a traitor, than be it. He’s more powerful than any of you realize. If you really think that hate and open hostility will ultimately save us all, I am glad to call myself a traitor and die as one.”

“No. You will let me finish. I know my shit, I am good at it, I am happy that you worry and care for me, really! I am and thank you for it, but this is getting ridiculous and I’m only doing worse because I’m stressed about you not trusting that I am competent and constantly watching me like… Like… Like a fucking vulture!”

Special mentions:

"Bad horsey!"

“Hey! I also have good days!”

Tagging: @ndostairlyrium @underneathestars @melisusthewee @rowanisawriter @pinayelf @zenstrike @inquisimer @heniareth and YOU!

#tagged petrel #15 lines of dialogue #aisling lavellan #I noted down everything not to get back at the fic again and I filled 3 pages in word #1790 words #my goodness Aisling you're chatty #back at you Mo it *has* been a nightmare #something I realized is that the most poignant lines on her are always said by other characters #... which is extremely in line with her #She'll talk you silly but will only speak about what negative she's feeling if she's VERY upset #and that Blackwall takes out the worst in her (in a good thing - not one she's happy to face but one she needs to face)

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millerflintstone · 1 year

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(a submission from @wormholeprophet ) FYI it seems like DeSantis didn’t kidnap that kid and the kid talked extensively about shooting up his school and stab people to his peers online? I’ve seen a lot of retractions from people who were reblogging this story recently.

I'm not crazy about the header the OP of that post, @moonfrosttheelf , used. I just reblogged with the most recent tweet from Rebekah Jones at the time. I did not think that reblog of mine would go anywhere since the only posts I share that gain any popularity are those of my cat.

Anyway ...

Her kid was arrested. That is true. If I was the mother of an autistic teen, and this happened to me, would I use the term 'kidnap'? Unsure. I don't have kids on purpose and can't speak to that.

It seems her son is back home with her.

Things do seem fishy with how all this went down.

Here's the link to the Miami Herald article about this situation. What the Yahoo article you submitted to my account, @wormholeprophet , doesn't talk about is what I've bolded below:

The boy was interviewed by sheriff’s deputies on March 23 and shown the memes, which he acknowledged sharing, the report said. The youth is not being named to protect his privacy.

One meme — part of a viral series — pictures a brain with intrusive thoughts about grabbing an officer’s gun, knowing that the result could be fatal. “Every time I see school security,” the boy wrote when he sent the meme, according to the warrant.

Authorities say he also posted another meme described in the warrant as “an individual with a shaved head holding a Hi-C drink. The message on the meme was “I’m feeling so silly I might shoot up a building full of people.”

He told the deputies at the time he had no plans to do anything, they noted in the report. A deputy told his parents it seemed like a “teenager” thing before leaving without making an arrest, a video of the exchange showed. Deputies did not question him about the more disturbing social media posts attributed to him in this week’s arrest report.

It’s unclear whether the deputies were aware of the messages, which were uncovered by a warrant to search his Snapchat account. The messages listed in the warrant involved threats of violence, including attacks on schoolchildren.

Feb. 9: “I want to shoot up the school.”

Feb. 12: “If I get a gun I’m gonna shoot up hnms lol” — an apparent reference to Holley Navarre Middle School, which the youth had previously attended.

Feb. 12: “I always keep a knife on me so maybe I’ll just stab ppl.”

Feb. 12: “…I have no hope in getting better, so why not kill the losers at school.”

An unredacted version of the warrant, obtained by the Herald, shows the threatening messages were sent by a username that was different than the one Jones’ son used to send the memes.

The document does not say how authorities determined both usernames are linked to the same account. The redacted version circulated by authorities does not reveal that there were two different usernames involved.

Jones provided a screenshot of her son’s account, which showed he changed to his current username in January, before the threats were made. She said he has never used the handle associated with the threatening messages.

Is the other username actually her kid or is it a plant? I don't know. Is this kid truly troubled and a danger? I also do not know.

I'd be interested in reading the unredacted warrant myself because the Yahoo article is very loosey-goosey with how they phrase things, specifically this - "The teenager told one of his friends that he planned to shoot up the school the Thursday before Spring Break but there were too many things going on so he postponed it until March 31."

Is there additional proof to back this up? Is the character of this friend on hyper focus like it is for Rebekah Jones? How much of this statement from the "friend" is speculation and how much is verifiable? Is the message from the account Jones is saying is not her kid's account?

I do wonder about the raid that was performed on their house by Florida agents when he was 11. I wonder how that act and having guns possibly pointed at him then at such a young age affected him. It seems he's gone through additional trauma, according to Jones's post on substack [x]

As for the raid, here's a link to what I'm talking about, if you are not aware [x]

#submission #turning off asks and submissions because I was not expecting this #back to my regular cat content and assorted reblogs and ramblings

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bad-rper · 4 months

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📝 cich to an'nya..................

what color reminds your muse of mine?

"Is it the royal blue worn by the morningdew?" Too blue was too close to another.

"The crimson sheen lacquered on her lips?" And another still.

"Must be that colorless kohl. Thick and clotted to her eyes when she needs to mask them most."

what song reminds your muse of mine?

A bout of sinking silence was interrupted by a faint humming. Each high note conjoined in the distinct tapping of a claw. Something dreary and sweetly hopeless, churned out mechanically from a metallic scroll.

youtube

what scent reminds your muse of mine?

"Finely shredded tobacco's silken smoke, entwined in something seductive and sweetened. The luxurious medley to enchant more than it is meant to delight the user. All thinly emitted from a long kiseru."

what meme reminds your muse of mine?

what sound reminds your muse of mine?

"Hooting from the canopy," he waved off to the nothing above. "Every time I assume it is one of that 'parliament'."

what setting reminds your muse of mine?

"The bank of a tree-lined lake, deep into the evening of a lightless sky. So flat and still that it, too, holds a universe." Now surrounded in blazing leaves, enough to incubate any egg. "... A universe where one may pluck innumerable tragedies."

what fashion style reminds your muse of mine?

"All that silk and paint. Feather crown and noose. All deliberate to stand out--what else would echo her efforts?"

what feeling does your muse associate with mine?

A mirror held to the past. Softer lights and shifted turn-outs.

A desire never accepted. Left to fade an reemerge in another portal pool.

Or the cold envy, ached and sore with want but never boiling into bitterness.

Or all what settled when he was left with his palms empty. When the vast breadth of 'great work' overshadowed any effort he had ever toiled in his thousands years.

"... Unaccomplishment."

It wasn't even a true word.

what animal does your muse associate with mine?

"More like 'hoo' is associated?"

what holiday does your muse associate with mine?

"She spoke of an 'Owl Festival' up in northern Kalimdor, focusing on all those heraldic birds. Never been to one, and but..."

what season does your muse associate with mine?

"... They celebrate in the twilight weeks of Winter. Where the people have already weathered the harshest days, to triumph in overcoming it and face forward to spring."

#ask #anonymous #Cichol Yewberry

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sunnydaleherald · 5 months

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The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Wednesday, January 3

WILLOW: I think dummies are cute. You don't? BUFFY: Uuuhhh. They give me the wig. Ever since I was little. WILLOW: What happened? BUFFY: I saw a dummy, It gave me the wig. There really wasn't a story there.

~~BtVS 1x09 “The Puppet Show”~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Rebel (Willow, Willow’s Mom, PG) by badly_knitted

No Boring Rules (Spike, Dawn, PG-13) by veronyxk84

Conversations with the Past (Xander, Assassin's Creed xover, T) by arcanedreamer

Clarity (Buffy/Spike, T) by cawthraven

getting all french with it (Giles/Jenny/Ethan, M) by The_Eclectic_Bookworm

Carrot and Stick (Angelus, William the Bloody, E) by vampbrat

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (Spike/Drusilla, G) by EustasiaVye13

Blind love (Spike/reader, unrated) by way2geeky

Consequences of a Spring Fling (Giles/Jenny, K) by Bobbie23

[Chaptered Fiction]

Back to the Beginning, Chapter 1/? (Angel/Cordelia, G) by imaginationofadreamer

Under the Water, Chapter 16/30 (Willow/Oz, M) by dwinchester

Divide & Conquer, Chapter 58/60 (Buffy/Giles, E) by Removes_and_Cleans_Glasses_00

a demigods fate, part 3 (Giles/teen!reader, unrated) by specialagentlokitty

a demigods fate, part 4 (Giles/teen!reader, unrated) by specialagentlokitty

a demigods fate, part 5 (Giles/teen!reader, unrated) by specialagentlokitty

Please Don’t Leave Me, Chapter 4 (Buffy/Spike, M) by JM89

The Greatest Love of All, Chapter 1 (Buffy, ensemble, K+) by Aristocrat Writer

[French language] Les deux Phénix, Chapter 5 (Buffy/Faith, M) by Friday Queen

Surviving Together, Chapter 12 (Buffy/Spike, Adult Only) by ionlylikebadboys

Pack My Box with Five Dozen Liquor Jugs, Chapter 3 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by honeygirl51885

A Waxy Gent Chuckled Over My Fab Jazzy Quips, Chapter 3 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by violettathepiratequeen

Three Little Words, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, Adult Only) by Maxineeden

Cherry On Top, Chapter 23 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Maxineeden

Love Ridden, Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by scratchmeout

There are No Epilogues When You Live Forever (Love from the Other Side of the Apocalypse), Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by Asokatanos

Truth Hurts, Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, R) by Geliot99

Pack My Box with Five Dozen Liquor Jugs, Chapter 3 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by honeygirl51885

A Waxy Gent Chuckled Over My Fab Jazzy Quips, Chapter 3 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by violettathepiratequeen

Love Ridden, Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by scratchmeout

Blood and Dust, Chapter 13 (Buffy/Spike, M) Complete! by Blackoberst

Stomping on butterflies, Chapters 1-2 (Buffy/Spike, T) by Blackoberst

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork: buffy for the outfit meme (worksafe) by genericaces

Manip: GYEONGSEONG CREATURE (but spuffy-fied) (worksafe) by kaizsche

Manip: A gift for all Spuffy Shippers this holiday season! (worksafe) by pass-the-dyanmite

Artwork: Alcohol marker portrait of a photoshoot picture of Sarah Michelle Gellar (slightly spooky, worksafe) by m-mangan-art

Artwork: Some ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ sketches (Ensemble, worksafe) by m-mangan-art

Comic art: Another sneak peek at my Buffyverse slams fist first into the Good Omens Gaimanverse comic (worksafe) by gleafer

Artwork: xanya! they feel like a matching clothes couple (worksafe) by genericaces

Artwork: 5x07 Fool for Love / 6x07 Once More With Feeling (Buffy/Spike, worksafe) by though-you-try

Comic art (3 panels): Who got Buffy in my Good Omens??! (worksafe) by gleafer

Toast, Chapters 1-6 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) Complete! by Dynamite

Spuffy Visions, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by bewildered

A Real Good Day (Buffy/Spike, G) Complete! by though_you_try

Some Aspects Of Spuffy, Chapters 1-3 (Buffy/Spike, R) by Lmrln

[Reviews & Recaps]

PODCAST: HELLMOUTH HOMOS: Doppelgangland by Fear Queers

[Community Announcements]

Jan 2024 Prompt and Pairing by btvscrackships

Buffyverse Fandom: Otherworldly Chemistry Presents: Flash Fiction January and Febraury 2024 via fanwork-exchange-promos

[Fandom Discussions]

[Jenny Calendar deserved better meta; commentary in the tags] by snails-in-my-mouth

s6, aka “what if everyone just ignored each other because they all just need so much fucking therapy it’s unreal” [commentary in the tags] by twicedeath

I’m not an Angel hater by any means however I do think Spike should get to be as big of a dick to him as he wants to be [commentary in the tags] by horsegirlhob

Day 2: Favorite Supporting Character. Tara McLay by k0nstantly-tragic

I love the idea of wlw/mlm solidarity with Willow and Oz but I also absolutely love the idea of Willow being Bi and being poly with Oz and Tara. by swarm-of-bees67

[anon ask] Hi! Do you prefer Fred/Wesley, Fred/Gunn or both?! answered by keylimequeen

Detective Lockley: How would you bring her back into the fold by NyleveEiram

What character from another universe would you want to drop into the Buffyverse? by Babettesgnomes

How old is Ben? by Few_Improvement_6357

One of the saddest parts about the end of "Chosen"... (MAJOR SPOILERS INSIDE) by jdpm1991

Just finished Buffy for the first time and I’VE GOT QUESTIONS by clarry1888

Spike - The Doctor is in… not the evil doctor episode Rather Spike as the guy who tells it like it is by AlkahestGem

Is there a song that makes you think of Buffy that wasn’t on the show? by buffy_slays

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

Join the editor team :)

#btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #angel the series #ats #fan art #fan fiction #meta

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galactia · 5 months

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@electric-ecclectic | 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐀𝐔𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 | these are tasty, so, accepting

❛ nothing is worth losing you. ❜ from the captive audience meme ;D

They weren't getting out of this.

Kaeya hadn't said as much, but he knew, by the way the Lector and Herald shifted, watching with mounting distrust of their guest and captor. There was another - an Electro Lector - lingering in a door, a pace or two away. She would have little defense against them, just as the Cryo aligned Herald would challenge him. He wouldn't be able to protect her, and the fear of that roared in his ears, sounding eerily like his thundering heart.

"Your life is." Kaeya breathed, almost under his breath, as he cut her bonds. He met her eye with his, and for a moment nothing but sheer, startling sincerity met her - fear, realization, knowing. Kaeya surged forward, lips crashing into hers in a furious, passionate kiss, before he ripped himself away, seizing her shoulders and shoving her aside, toward the only route of escape.

Cryo tore through the air, dancing around him in a deadly waltz as he spun, unsheathing his sword and winking out of existence, only to reappear behind the Herald and plunge his blade into his chest.

The creature howled, sending the other two into a frenzy, thirsting for blood.

"Traitorous sinner!" The Lector shouted, fire lashing out but not toward Kaeya, toward Signe, and Kaeya's breath hissed sharp and he flung his hand out, ice spiraling across the stone to Signe's heels and reaching up behind her into a wall of seething, cold cryo to protect her.

Shrieking steam was all that resulted from the Lector's attempt, and Kaeya dodged the resulting crash of lightening that would have been his punishment. "Try harder-" He mocked, and spun, springing toward the Electro Lector. Ice sliced through sinew and dark blood drenched him, the creature's hand flying to its cut throat.

Raging fire licked at his back, and he felt it ignite his clothes, a cry of terror ripping from him at the heat, only for washing ice to knock him off his feat, the pain of the intense vaporize leaving him breathless and aching, shivering as the ice melted to the lingering, heated stone.

The Pyro Lector gripped his throat, and Kaeya shook off the daze as his throat closed. Shit, shit, shit-

"Run!" He choked, slamming his fist into the Lector's arm, "run!"

The balcony that overlooked the baleful, glowing darkness yawned beside him, and then beneath his feet, as he was dangled out over it in threat, "Lose your life, and embrace the Abyssal light, Alberich Heir-" The creature hissed, as black spots grew in Kaeya's vision. He was out of options.

Ice formed in his palm and sunk into the Lector's arm, and Kaeya's feet brushed the railing, briefly finding purchase. He lashed out with both hands, seizing his attacker.

There was a frozen moment, one in which he searched for Signe and found her, her form, still illuminated lavender and beautiful in the archway leading out. I love you. He mouthed, as his weight shifted and he and the Pyro-Aligned Lector tumbled off, into the inky, star-swirling blackness.

The Cryo Creature turned, focus shifting to the Librarian. It would give pursuit. Signe would have to run.

#electricecclectic #answered//electricecclectic #verse//abyssalcorruption

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gurggggleburgle · 1 year

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day XXX of the swarm: as the waves of the bots continues i find it now impossible to escape their grasp. Despite how many times I have moved my base camp and hidden away they find me. I awoke this morning to four just outside my doorstep staring at me with their cold unsettling eyes and eggplant emojis. A few had names that almost felt like real kin of the land at a glance but their appearance gives them away. They might be learning. They might be desperate.

I went out in search of posts to reblog and again found five linking off site with the mark of the bots. I worry sometimes if they're overrun the crops. What if one day I go out and it is all their work. Like weeds they spring up despite our reporting.

My only comfort is the crabs. My friends say it's all fine. We've faced the scourge before. We've faced this in the time of old... and yet.

Was it ever this bad?

My old bones creak as I watch the refugees march through. They know little of our ways but they are trying. The sandy dunes and the harsh winds blowing in as we look at each other. "I like your shoelaces I say."

And they replied, "thanks," and nothing else.

Still so much to learn. The destial meme is back to herald me the news. I cheer for the transcatgirl doing crime.

Another bot approaches and the cycle repeats.

#spam bots #dumb thing

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fismoll7secinv · 3 years

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What if Nandor went for his ✨ glitter like in Twilight ✨ idea for a Halloween costume? What if Guillermo had to help him put it on? What if Guillermo got a freaking nosebleed because of his intense internal fight of 'I do not feel anything from it, I am fine' which he failed? What if Nandor could barely control himself because of the sweet smell of blood?

Haha, just kidding.

Unless? 😳

Ay lmao yeah I went and wrote that idea I had some time ago. Cw: blood, nosebleed, blood licking. Mutual pining at its finest. Guillermo in denial (and realising his feelings). My agenda of vampire’s eyes shining when they get Thirsty. My agenda of Guillermo’s blood smelling oh so sweet and tasty to Nandor. Also some twilight references but do not @ me for it, I don’t even know this series except memes and the 1st part. Crack turned hot. Is that a trope? Anyway

[AO3]

-----

“Guillermo. On Halloween this year I shall dress as the mainstream imagery of vampires known from Twilight!”

That was hours ago, and Guillermo already accepted that his master was set on the idea and wouldn’t give up on it this year. Thus, he spent a portion of his day on getting all the required elements for the costume, which turned out to be terrifyingly easy, as everything could be found on a special Twilight merch site with same-day delivery. He refused to think about who the customers were and what their motives for getting full clothes and characterization of Twilight characters could be.

It was already evening, and he was going around Nandor’s room during his routine cleaning when the doorbell rang. He put down the dust brush and went to the door, where a delivery man waited with a big box by his feet and a tablet with a pen already in his hands. Seeing how the person was not interested in any pleasantries, Guillermo signed the receipt and bid the silent man a polite farewell.

He assessed the box, bigger than he thought, then bent down to lift it, and went straight to Nandor’s room.

“Did you get me my Edward costume?”

Guillermo jumped up and halted mid-step, almost dropping the package in favour of grabbing a stake and pointing it to the attacker who came at him out of nowhere just after he crossed the threshold. He looked to his side at Nandor’s excited face looming over him, and he sighed.

“Master, don’t scare me like that,” or I could hurt you unintentionally, his mind finished.

Nandor didn’t pay attention to Guillermo’s words and quickly circled him, moving from his side to standing in front of him. He pointed at the package.

“Is that it?”

“Yes.”

As soon as the confirmation came, Nandor turned around with a swish, and marched to the other side of the room with one arm behind his back and the other springing up in the air, crowned with a fist and a single index finger pointing up.

“Then may the preparations begin!” he exclaimed, as if it was not just one person behind him but a whole army to command.

Guillermo followed just behind him and put the box on the floor. Not wasting any time, he took a spring knife out of his pocket, opened it with a quick movement of his wrist, then swiftly cut the tape holding the cardboard walls together. The top part gave up and the flaps opened to reveal just a bundle of simple clothes – trousers, shirt, and the coat which Edward wore when he revealed himself as a vampire to Bella.

Slightly shaking his head, Guillermo started taking the clothes out and hanging them on a chair nearby.

“Firstly put these on,” he turned to Nandor, holding lower garments in his hands.

“Then the glitter?”

“Yes. Then the glitter.”

Nandor grabbed his own trousers, fumbling with their front in order to loosen them so they could slip down, while Guillermo was still standing right in front of him like a clothes rack. Guillermo’s hands twitched, as his eyes ran franticly about and tried not to look at his master’s fingers playing around his front and heralding a stripping show, until he hastily put the clothes on the coffin behind Nandor and span around, away from the scene in front of him.

“Well then, I will go back to cleaning for now!”

He backed off several steps into the other side of the room, where he left his dust brush earlier. He wiped his hand on his trousers, suddenly uncomfortably sweaty, then reached for the brush and started energetically waving it around the trinkets on one shelf, almost knocking a few off.

“So diligent,” Nandor’s voice commented among rustling of the clothes, then soon turned into a hum to a tune which was almost certainly a song from Twilight’s soundtrack.

It was not long before Guillermo gave up on dusting and focused on putting the scattered objects in their correct places.

“I am a genius,” Nandor interrupted his thoughts.

“Yes, master,” he answered automatically.

“Humans will not even suspect that I am a real vampire. And if I feast on someone? They will praise me for my acting!” he exclaimed, finishing with a clearly proud “ha!”.

“That is… actually quite smart.”

A quiet growl came from the other side of the room.

“Why do you sound like it’s unusual.”

“You’re imagining it, master, I’m truly impressed.”

“Obviously you must be. You didn’t come up with this yourself.”

Guillermo shifted his attention to the wax which dropped on a holder from one candle, careful not to let it spill on the furniture and suffer more painful cleaning later. Suddenly, he felt air stir behind him in an unnatural way, as if something approached him quick and unnoticed. His hair stood on end.

“I don’t sleep,” Nandor’s voice murmured just behind his ear, lower and quieter than usual, blowing warm air on Guillermo’s skin. He froze.

“I am pale, only eat junk food, don’t like the sunlight… You know what I am.”

“Master, please,” tension left his body, and he sighed.

“Say it. Out loud, say it!”

Guillermo stared into the distance as if wanting to look straight at the camera for any kind of mental relief before going along with Nandor’s roleplay. There was no camera though, so his eyes fell on an empty wall.

“A vampire,” he squeezed out as if strangled.

“Nyihihi,” a goofy laugh resounded just behind him before the overbearing presence disappeared. Guillermo’s lips stretched slightly into a small smile. Maybe it wasn’t that bad.

“Now lubricate me with the glitter.”

Never mind, that was going to be a tough night.

Guillermo almost choked on air, quickly covering it with a cough, and remembering the body glitter gel he bought earlier that day and left at the opposite side of the room. He turned back to his master.

Nandor stood by the coffin, stripped naked to the waist and wearing only elegant navy-blue trousers. Guillermo’s eyes ran frantically about, switching between ogling the naked skin and looking literally anywhere else. After a moment, he finally cleared his throat, and slowly approached Nandor, glancing around the shelves in search for the bottles of the gel, and trying to calm the heat crawling on his face with the sheer power of will and distractions.

“Did you move the glitter, master?” he asked after checking that the bottle which was previously standing near the clothes hadn’t fallen down or got covered by the coat.

“I am holding it right now.”

Guillermo turned around and looked at Nandor’s hand, only now noticing that he was holding something.

“Oh, thank you, master.”

He took the offered bottle.

“You are very distracted today, Guillermo,” he heard Nandor’s voice but failed to determine if it sounded suspicious or worried.

“Oh, you know, all those preparations just tired me out,” he waived his hand dismissively, then started struggling to rip off the protection on the bottle.

“Are you worried that you don’t have a costume?”

“It’s okay, I will just pull something out from the loft, there is plenty of period clothes there.”

The unnecessary additional plastic protection on the cork proved to be tougher than he expected, so he pulled out his knife.

“Oh, I know! You could be my sun!”

The knife slipped on the side of the bottle and cut his finger. Guillermo hissed and pulled his hand back, accessing the injury and observing a red line quickly blooming on his skin. He put the wound in his mouth, so the blood didn’t stain anything.

“The whath?” he mumbled through his finger while looking up at his silent master.

Nandor was looming over him closer than before, eyes staring at his mouth. Maybe it was his imagination, but Guillermo couldn’t shake off the impression of his irises being slightly lighter than before.

“Master?” he pulled the finger out of his mouth, feeling a sense of anxiety growing somewhere inside.

Nandor finally blinked and looked back at him. He backed off and cleared his throat with a fist over his mouth.

“Uh, the sun. You know, vampires in Twilight shine in the daylight, but it’s dark outside, so I need a sun,” he paused for a moment. “Or a disco ball.”

“A disco ball?” Guillermo repeated in an incredulous tone, thinking he heard wrong.

Nandor gestured with his hand in the air, swaying it in an intangible way.

“I saw some pictures of Edward with a disco ball, so you could just go around with it.”

“Those were. Those were memes, master.”

“Memes?”

“Uh, just jokes.”

“What are you joking about?”

Guillermo shook his head, defeated.

“I think it’s fine, master, the costume is important, not the context. You can also use the light of the streetlamps as the sun.”

Nandor nodded with a hum.

“That is a good idea, Guillermo.”

He looked at Guillermo’s lowered arm.

“Is your hand okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just a small cut, it already stopped bleeding.”

“Then get to work!”

Nandor straightened up, presenting his chest to Guillermo.

Guillermo moved his whole attention back to the bottle. This time it opened easily, and the glittery, silver liquid got poured on his uninjured hand. He reluctantly reached towards Nandor’s collarbone, and started spreading the gel around it, the feeling of a rough skin and hair sending a prickling sensation to his fingertips. His mouth felt uncomfortably dry, and the room seemed to become unusually warm, as more gel was poured and more skin covered, glistening in the flickering light of the candles right in front of his eyes.

Suddenly, he felt a wet streak drip from his nose down to his mouth and chin. His hand automatically shot up to cover the spilling liquid, briefly withdrawing to let him glance at it and see dark blood smeared on his palm.

He cursed internally, among fighting an immense internal embarrassment for getting a nosebleed in such a situation. One of his hands kept covering his nose to stop the blood from dripping down and leaving stains, while the other was covered in the body glitter which he was not looking forward to cleaning off his clothes. He decided to either excuse himself or ask his master to take a napkin out of his pocket for him, yet no sound came out of his mouth as he froze just after looking up at the vampire in front of him.

He was met with a set of piercing eyes staring down at him fixedly, drilling into his soul and glowing brightly despite no light shining at them directly. Nandor was silent and still, intense focus on his face and small twitches of his sniffing nostrils the only movement on it. Suddenly, Guillermo couldn’t brush off the feeling of being a pray standing right in front of a predator.

His hand covered in glitter twitched towards a small bottle of holy water in his pocket.

“…Master?”

The already small distance between them suddenly vanished when Nandor shifted towards Guillermo in a blink of an eye. Guillermo clutched the holy water but didn’t manage to take it out, as he was quickly constrained by an arm which weaved itself around his middle and plastered his limb to the side, then roughly pushed him towards the taller man, making him yelp in surprise.

Before he managed to catch up on what was happening, he felt his chin get tightly grabbed and raised. He was suddenly faced with the other man, a very short distance between them, faces mere inches apart and torsos tightly pressed together. He couldn’t take his eyes off the glowing irises still fixated on his mouth smeared with blood. Guillermo observed, wide-eyed and with mind blank, as Nandor opened his mouth and dove down, then licked the blood on his face, wet tongue leaving a trail from his chin up to his mouth and nose.

He stopped breathing altogether, his whole body rigid and every muscle tight, his heart hammering so fast that he heard buzzing in his ears. The intense smell of iron filled his lungs, the saliva on his mouth and chin brought coldness to his skin, soon warmed by another glide of the tongue hungrily licking off the blood which still dripped from his nose.

Feeling dizzy, he reached with his free hand, and grabbed Nandor’s arm which held his face. The vampire released his chin, then shook off his grasp and clasped the wrist of his previously injured hand himself. He moved the palm towards his mouth and licked off the blood on it, before closing his lips around the wound on his fingertip, and sucking on it, making the wound open up again. A short sound escaped Guillermo’s throat, sounding awfully close to a moan for his own comfort, and luring Nandor’s shining eyes back to his own.

They locked gazes.

Nandor’s hand released Guillermo’s wrist and moved towards the human’s shirt, ripping it around the neck in a swift movement.

Suddenly, he hissed and jumped back, the skin on his hand sizzling as if burned. Guillermo looked down and saw his necklace with a cross which he wore under his shirt, now out in the open on his chest. He grabbed it with one hand, taking out the holy water with the other.

“Get out of here!” Nandor shouted.

The vampire stood several steps away, leaning on the table and covering his bloodied mouth with a hand, not looking at Guillermo.

“Go clean yourself, and don’t come back before that,” he growled.

“Yes, master!”

Guillermo backed off towards the door, not taking his eyes off of Nandor even for a moment, staring at his turned back. As soon as he was out of the room, he ran towards the bathroom, closed the door, and slid down to the floor. He touched his mouth with a shaky hand, feeling unbearable heat radiating from his face, waves of coldness and warmth coursing through his body in turns, and heart almost jumping out of his chest. The feeling of Nandor’s tongue and tight hold still fresh on his skin and vivid in his mind.

As much as he wanted to keep denying it, it was painfully obvious to him how far gone he already was.

He hid his face in his hands and groaned.

#nandermo #nandor x guillermo #wwdits #wwdits fanfiction #what we do in the shadows #nandor the relentless #guillermo de la cruz #my fics #mine #tw blood #cw nosebleed #tw injury #yzzwriting

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bluecadash · 3 years

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OC Tag

Much love to @rosenkow for taggin me! Here's the OC meme for Elin [Picrew Source]

Tagging: @mrs-gauche, @little-lightning-lavellan, @rozhevisny, @lunar-shards, @tarasylnin-lavellan, @humble--bard, and anyone who wants to join. No pressure or obligation though ;)

Elin Lavellan

Alias/Nicknames: Inquisitor, Herald, Elfroot (by Varric), Vhenan (by Solas)

Gender: cis female

Age: late 20s

Zodiac: unknown

Abilities/Talents: Stealth, knife throwing, herbalism, trap building, whittling, and competitive drinking

Alignment: lawful / neutral / chaotic / good / neutral / evil / true

Religion: Faithful. Grew up with the beliefs of the Dalish in the Elven pantheon

Sins: envy / greed / gluttony / lust / pride / sloth / wrath

Virtues: charity / chastity / diligence / humility / justice / kindness / patience

Languages: Common tongue, Elven, bit of Qunlat

Family: Got separated from her birth clan a long time ago (status unknown). Considers clan Lavellan her family but has not seen them for some years

Friends: Inner Inquisition circle. Closest friends are Solas (friends to lovers), Josephine, Dorian, Iron Bull, and Cassandra (enemies to friends)

Sexuality: heterosexual / bisexual / pansexual / homosexual / demisexual / asexual / unsure / other

Relationship Status: single / partnered / married / widowed / open relationship / divorced / not ready for dating / it’s complicated

Libido: sex god / very high / high / average / low / very low / non-existent

Build: slender / average / athletic / muscular / curvy / other

Hair: white / blonde / brunette / red / black / other

Eyes: brown / blue / gray / green / black / yellow

Skin: pale / fair / olive / light brown / brown / dark / other

Height: ~ 158 cm (she is small)

Scars: Several from past fights and accidents. Most important ones are burn marks on left cheek and left shoulder

dogs or cats / birds or bugs / snakes or spiders / coffee or tea / ice cream or cake / fruits or vegetables / sandwich or soup / magic or melee / sword or bow / summer or winter / spring or autumn / past or future

Five songs that remind me of them:

Train Wreck by James Arhtur

Honey by Kehlani

Muddy Waters by LP

Oh Freedom by TRILLS

water color by Whee In

#thank you for the tag 🖤#dragon age #oc: elin lavellan #oc meme

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theclownprnc-arch · 4 years

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♣ DRENCHED IN BLOOD MEME.

@shcrpknives said: 🔪🔪 how would Joker react to finding Aaron after he killed the Archbishop? Re: absolutely covered in blood and running for his life from cops...

Seated on the bonnet of the car, long legs swing idly as the tune he whistles is much merrier than the foggy night heralding DOOM. A revolver resting in slender hands. For no particular reason at all, really. Rather out out of habit, just to keep restless fingers BUSY. Maybe something— someone will roll his way and this little toy will be put to good use. Suddenly he catches some rustle, chaotic swish that’s preceded by sirens wailing in the distance ( a sound too familiar ). Springing to his feet, soon a broad grin marked by malice blooms on the pallid face at the new sight. Chevrolet’s headlights bring out the CRIMSON and the gun’s shoved back into the holster. He wouldn’t want to scare nor provoke a delinquent so promising.

“Hey, buddy. Need a ride?”

#♣ queued.#shcrpknives #♣ 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙨𝙝𝙢𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙨. / answered.#it only takes so much to catch his attention tbh ghdfkghd

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latristereina · 5 years

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UNDERRATED RELATIONSHIP/PARTNERSHIP/FRIENDSHIP MEME 2/?: my choice: Joan of Kent & Edward the Black Prince

Prince Edward had only returned to England from the Rheims campaign in France in November 1360, just a few weeks before Thomas Holand died at the end of December, and yet by the spring of 1361, barely three months later, the prince had not only persuaded Joan to marry him but had also secured his father’s approval for their marriage. There is no doubt that the prince’s affections were deeply engaged. Froissart and Chandos Herald, both contemporaries who knew the prince and Joan personally, record the prince’s great love for Joan, the latter succinctly stating that ‘he loved her greatly’. His fondness for his cousin was long-standing, as is evident from the gift noted in his accounts in 1348 where she is described in affectionate terms as ‘Jeanette’, and the strength of his love is evident from the letter he wrote to her in 1367 after six years of marriage, addressing her as ‘my dearest and truest sweetheart and well beloved companion’. It is much more difficult to determine Joan’s feelings for the prince. Her love for Thomas Holand was apparent throughout their relationship from her steadfast loyalty and commitment to him, and his early death was a real tragedy for Joan. It is hard to imagine that she felt as strongly about the prince within a few weeks of Thomas’ death. It is far more likely that she was genuinely fond of her cousin, even loved him, but was not in love with him. Joan did not have to marry the prince. Her independent wealth and her widowed status gave her a choice in deciding her own future in a way she had not had before, and the prince could not have coerced her into agreement. The long wrangle over her marriage to Thomas Holand had shown that she was not ambitious and there is no evidence that she became either forceful or calculating during their marriage.

- Penny Lawne, Joan of Kent: The First Princess of Wales

On his arrival at Bordeaux he was received with solemn processions, the priests coming out to meet him, bearing crosses. The princess followed, with her eldest son Edward, then three years old, surrounded by her ladies and knights. They were full of joy at meeting one another again, and embraced most tenderly, and then walked together hand in hand to their abode.

- Louise Creighton, Life of Edward, the Black Prince, Illustrated with pictures and Maps

#UNDERRATED RELATIONSHIP/PARTNERSHIP/FRIENDSHIP MEME #historyedit #perioddramaedit #women in history #men in history #joan of kent #edward the black prince

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arrivisting · 4 years

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WIP Project

I’m going to do that meme where you post a little from each of your current WIPs, because mine have been lying dead for months, wholly fossilised, and I can’t seem to breathe the life back into them. Tell me which one I should focus on and I’ll try to obey!

Gil-galad has three daddies ch. 2

It was still enough to slip the hood from his head and reveal his dark braids and his Finwion face to the guards, who were less guards than heralds or informants. Aman was a land without watch-words or interrogation, and they waved him past after a glance, and Fingon rode on through the half-remembered streets to the Great Square.

There once – once! – the torches had flamed in the dark, and Fëanor had spoken of the lands to the West, of freedom, of vengeance, of wildness and adventure. There Maedhros had joined hands with his brothers across the square from Fingon and sworn the Oath, and Fingon had been too far away to stop him, too late to do anything but watch. They had all been laughing as they did it, vertiginous with the great daring of defying the Valar. How strange that that was what hurt now: that they had known so very little of what was to come that they had laughed, his seven cousins, who had not been murderers then, who had not then been Damned beyond Return.

Untitled Aegnor/Andreth project

He looks just as he did when she first loved him, when Dorthonion was still green and his profile had been heartbreakingly pure against the blue sky. He still has the springing fair hair, the fine-grained skin as pale as milk. The blue eyes, wide at the sight of her, are the same; so are the parted lips, as if breath and sound together have stilled on his tongue.

But Andreth is not young any longer. Or rather, she is not only young. She is old and young at once, wise and foolish together, her hands spotted like a winter apple one moment and smooth and fresh the next.

Untitled Fingon/Maedhros cliché banging at Himring project

In the bathhouse, Tarnis said, briskly rubbing at her hair, “You can’t imagine Maedhros Left-Hand is fool enough to drown him in his bath the moment after he arrives.”

“Don’t call him that,” I said, because the Fëanorians in red were as unlikely to be comfortable leaving us unwatched in their halls as we were to be so divided and peeled away from our prince, so quickly after our arrival. “Not even in your head.”

“It’s not the worst thing I could call him.”

“It’s hardly politic.”

“Tulkaranco,” she said, “it’s because he’s Maedhros Left-Hand that you might lower your guard a little. He gave up the crown, after all; if he meant to seize it back, he’d do it much more cleverly than you’re imagining. A fall down one of those twisting stair-cases – an ambush or stray arrow out riding --”

“It’s because he gave up the crown that I trust him not at all,” I said. “At least his brothers are honest. An open nest of snakes! Ambitious, double-dealing, begrudging serpents each.”

She laughed. “Are snakes notable for bearing grudges?”

“Noldor are,” I said, refusing to unpick my tangled metaphor, “and Fëanorions even more so.”

Untitled marriage of convenience project

Maedhros said, “Why are we speaking of marriage at all?” and Fingon gave him a look that suggested he had left his mind with Irmo overnight.

“Because tomorrow you are leaving for Formenos, and all your family, and Grandfather – for twelve years – and do you think when those twelve years are up that the trouble will be past, and your father will love mine any more dearly?”

He had not been thinking quite that far.

He had been thinking only of those twelve years, and what exile would mean. Twelve years in exile, twelve years far from Tirion and his work and his friends; twelve years with his father and brothers all steeping together in anger and his mother far away. He had been trying to accustom himself somehow to the great unimaginable fracturing about to take place, how his life was about to change, how to survive the twelve years of it stretching unbelievably ahead.

He had not yet begun to imagine how, after that, the fracture might heal itself, how the flying pieces of the House of Finwe would ever fit themselves back together.

Untitled Fingon/Maedhros banging at the Mereth Aderthad project

“Fingon, no,” Maedhros said, and the refrain was so familiar on his lips that for a moment he felt as though he had, in fact, stepped into the past: the warmer and gentler past, the days spent in endless soft light in a crystal city on a hill, shaded only by tall trees. A past with none of Beleriand’s fire and blood, its pain and loss, without the savage beauty of a red moon framed by the Pass of Aglon and snow-capped mountains, the deep, wound-like gorge of the Gelion.

“If you tell me you brought anything better for a full ceremony of state than your riding leathers, I won’t insist,” Fingon said.

Maedhros gestured vaguely at what he was already wearing, and Fingon said,

“That isn’t even grey, it’s dun. Is it dyed at all?”

Untitled Nerdanel project

“You will name them what you will name them,” Nerdanel says, and closes her eyes. He always has. It has never seemed to matter that their sons’ father-names fall like thrown daggers, each insistent Finwe, Finwe a claim, a declaration, and now – a chant. He won’t break his pattern for these last. “What I will name them will come to me.”

‘LEGXIT’ Gigolas project

“In Durin’s halls,” he said, “we would talk rather more about your sword, and the forging of it, and the manner of its quenching, and other great weapons made by its smith. It would be best if you had forged it yourself, of course. But your bravery would be praised;

The flame of her heart was fierce

And bright and true her sword!

Just as hammers falling

She slew the dark Witch-lord!

“But I am no singer,” Gimli said, clearing his throat after his chanting, and sought shade in the depth of his mead-mug.

untitled Gigolas in Valinor project

“Well,” said Legolas, and now there was the faintest pink edging to his cheekbones, too. “I don’t speak Quenya.”

“You don’t speak – is there another kind of Elvish? They speak another tongue over there, those fancy High-Elves? One you don’t speak?”

“--Even so.”

“You mean to tell me that when we get there they’ll all be jabbering away like pretty parrots, and not only will I not make out a word, you won’t either? And you’re only mentioning this now, when it’s too late to turn back?”

“I can make out some words,” Legolas said. He shrugged. “We’ll learn swiftly.”

“I have a mind to push you out of this boat!”

#wips #silmarillion #my fic

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recentanimenews · 3 years

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FEATURE: The Top 10 Anime OPs of 2020 According to YOU!

As we near the voting period for the Anime Awards where we will collectively determine the anime bests of the year 2020, the well-worn adage of “never skip the OP” comes to mind. I’m confident we’ll make the best choice, but there were many great OPs this year that won't make the cut to be highlighted in the nominations. So let’s take a look back at some of the year’s greatest not determined by our admittedly extremely qualified panel of judges, but by numbers and you, the fans.

We’ve been posting up OPs on YouTube all year and have even made a playlist for 2020 — so what better way to unbiasedly look at the year's best than with the most important votes of all? Views. Below I’ve composed a Top 10 list of anime OPs featured on Crunchyroll Collection YouTube Channel by views at 30 days so as not to give an unfair advantage to OPs posted earlier in the year. This is not a perfect metric — as I’ll get into a bit later — but delivers either an interesting look at what people have been watching this year or, at the very least, some great new additions to your playlist on YouTube ...

10. Black Clover - "Everlasting Shine" by TOMORROW X TOGETHER

youtube

The collision of anime and K-pop will become a theme on this list, so it’s only natural that it should begin with the collaboration between TOMORROW X TOGETHER and the anime that has never missed an OP. Black Clover hit off its next slate of anime-original content under the supervision of Yuki Tabata with a killer opening highlighting the magic knight captains. "Everlasting Shine" cleared 800k views in its first month and joined the series’ killer playlist snuggly between songs by Snowman.

9. HAIKYU!! TO THE TOP - "Phoenix" by BURNOUT SYNDROMES

youtube

BURNOUT SYNDROMES brought in the new year with a bang, heralding the beginning of Haikyu’s spring tournament arc with yet another absolute banger of an OP to compete with their own iconic "Hikare Are" and "Fly High!" Phoenix rose to claim 900k views in 30 days, especially impressive since Karasuno had no highlight opponents facing them down in the first half of the new TO THE TOP season.

8. Black Clover - "Stories" by Snowman

youtube

Black Clovers 11th OP had a lot of weight to carry introducing the first post-manga content the anime had to offer and nailed it with a Snowman collaboration so good that the group not only got signed to return for OP 13, but Daisuke Sakuma voiced an anime-original character designed just for him in Episode 140. "Stories" came just under 1 million views in its first month at 950k, joining the pantheon of hit Black Clover OPs.

7. Rent-a-Girlfriend - "Centimeter" by the peggies

youtube

I don’t know about you, but ever since Sarazanmai’s spectacular ED "Stand by Me" featuring the peggies, I’ve been waiting for more anime music by the group, and it is absolutely not a surprise to see their next collaboration on this list. They delivered an absolutely addictive song which TMS elevated with some great dance moves and brilliant color work. A smart move, as we’ll see later in this list.

No metric for measurement is perfect and "Centimeter" may be the best example of where this list sells an OP short. The song barely cleared 1 million views in its first month and placed the peggies in the Number 7 spot, however, the viewership on Rent-a-Girlfriend’s OP has only accelerated since, and it now sits comfortably at 6 million views, tying it for second place in overall viewership. Looking back again in another six months, it might even be Number 1 ...

6. Black Clover - "Black Catcher" by Vickeblanka

youtube

The original Black Clover OP artists returned to close out the anime’s last wildly-escalating manga-adapted arc with a killer OP that got served up twice. First in a dark black-and-white aesthetic going into the series climactic battle, then again in brilliant color after the conclusion of the epic conflict.

"Black Catcher" brought in 1.1 million views in what is an astonishing sweep in popular viewership for this list. Every OP Black Clover dropped this year made it into the top 10. A spectacular feat for a series that serves up a new one every cour.

5. Re:ZERO Season 2 - "Realize" by Konomi Suzuki

youtube

In a series so notorious for outright ignoring it’s OP and/or EDs for the majority of its episodes to pack in as much extra time as possible for Subaru’s continued suffering, it’s absolutely amazing how quality each of its OPs has been. "Realize" rapidly ascended to 1.5 million in its first month and has since aged like a fine wine as the events of the series slowly added context to many of the unusual and intriguing visuals therein.

4. JUJUTSU KAISEN - "Kaikai Kitan" by Eve

youtube

Launching one of the most anticipated new series in years and adapted by studio MAPPA, who has acted as the headline studio of 2020 with multiple hit productions, "Kaikai Kitan" was a shoo-in for this list. JUJUTSU KAISEN didn’t disappoint with a slick OP directed by one of the all-time animation greats and Naruto alumni Shingo Yamashita. "Kaikai Kitan" cleared 2 million in its first 30 days, and if anything, is only accelerating as the series’ sterling production continues to draw more fans. Also, TOHO released the video early on their own channel, where it’s performing even better.

3. Boruto - "Hajimatteiku Takamatteiku" by Sambomaster

youtube

This ED stands out as a love letter to Naruto in an anime that is essentially one big love letter to Naruto. Returning to the franchise after crafting what may have been the original Naruto’s most iconic OP, "Rhapsody of Youth," Sambomaster delivers yet another bop, while Pierrot seeded the visual sequence with references to many iconic Naruto OP visuals. "Hajimatteiku Takamatteiku" cleared 2 million views in its first month and was the perfect introduction for the series' slow build toward the manga’s Kara arc.

2. The God of High School - "Contradiction" ft. Tyler Carter by KSUKE

youtube

Subtlety is not The God of High School’s thing and "Contradiction" dropped like a punch in the face with some completely wild visuals and music. Techno doesn’t often make appearances in anime OPs, so a song composed by KSUKE featuring the American metalcore vocalist of Issues, Tyler Carter, was a galaxy away from ordinary even in a year where an avalanche of K-pop has been dropping into anime. The accompanying visuals could only be described as aggressive with fight scenes set under a color-swapped psychedelic blacklight style effect. 2.5 million viewers tuned in in the first month, and the song recently cleared 6 million to continue competing with Rent-a-Girlfriend's "Centimeter" from the same season.

1. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! - "Easy Breezy" by chelmico

youtube

It really couldn’t have been anyone else. Storyboarded by Masaaki Yuasa himself and animated with some surprisingly analog techniques by the talented French animator Abel Gongora, "Easy Breezy" cleared 3 million views in its first month and has breezed its way past 10 million over the course of 2020. This OP was easy, it was breezy, and it was super meme-y. The riffs of the girls of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! dancing to chelmico’s addicting tune were absolutely legion and for good reason, the loud colors, the simple style, and the Drake references were a perfect breeding ground for some truly inspired fan content, making it, in my opinion, the only choice for OP of the Year for 2020.

Gotta say I’m overjoyed to see Eizouken at the top of the list even after spending half a year working that earworm out of my head, as well as so much love for Black Clover's OPs which have really been an achievement in quality even against Pierrot’s own storied legacy in Naruto and Bleach music.

And don’t think I’m stopping here. While many fans studiously never skip the OP, I also never skip the ED ...

What's your favorite OP from this list? Let us know in the comments. And tune in tomorrow for the top EDs of 2020 according to YouTube!

Peter Fobian is an Associate Producer at Crunchyroll, writer for Anime Academy and Anime in America, and an editor at Anime Feminist. You can follow him on Twitter @PeterFobian.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Peter Fobian

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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theliterateape · 3 years

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The Highest of All Arts and the Path Away from Trump

By Don Hall

On June 8, 1972, Shirley Chisholm shocked her supporters by visiting George Wallace in his hospital room in Silver Spring, Maryland. Chisholm was a political progressive; Wallace, then governor of Alabama, a notorious segregationist. They were rivals in the Democratic presidential primary, and Wallace had just been shot five times at point-blank range by an assassin.

“Shirley Chisholm! What are you doing here?” asked the governor, who would remain paralyzed and pain-ridden for life. Wallace knew he was her nemesis, and that her supporters would be angered by the visit. Her answer brought him to tears.

“I don’t want what happened to you to happen to anyone,” she said.

They chatted and prayed together until his doctors said he needed to rest. When she left, Wallace did not want to let go of her hand. His daughter Peggy Wallace Kennedy has described Chisholm’s visit as altering her father’s life. “Shirley Chisholm had the courage to believe that even George Wallace could change,” she said. “Chisholm planted a seed of new beginnings in my father’s heart.”

SOURCE

This.

This is what is currently missing in our social media-saturated world.

I believe the country is at a tipping point culturally and on that razor's edge, we have choices to make. One of those choices is whether we are a fundamentally punitive bunch, hellbent on punishing each and every slight or insult or if we instead can look beyond indiscretions and assumptions and get over ourselves long enough to focus on the common good.

The example set by the evicted president is an illustration on how not to behave. His outgoing antics demonstrate a level of pettiness, a model of emotional slightness, and an inability to witness a bigger picture of the world than the one that revolves strictly around himself.

Social media, once thought to be a heralding in of increased community and connection, has become nothing less than the most massive propaganda machine ever created with the widest and deepest reach of anything previously imagined. The use of it to right perceived wrongs, to wield against others in increasingly petty methods, and to proliferate the most divisive sorts of agitprop has destroyed families, reputations, and seriously compromised our ability to govern ourselves.

Recently, a group of heady thinkers published a paper—Political Sectarianism in America—and argued that "Political Sectarianism consists of three core ingredients: othering—the tendency to view opposing partisans as essentially different or alien to oneself; aversion—the tendency to dislike and distrust opposing partisans; and moralization—the tendency to view opposing partisans as iniquitous. It is the confluence of these ingredients that makes sectarianism so corrosive in the political sphere."

Othering. Aversion. Moralization.

The three pillars of Facebook as supported by the bedrock bracings of Narcissism, Vitriol, and Memes About Dogs Dressed as Things Non-Canine.

“How dismal it is to see present day Americans yearning for the very orthodoxy that their country was founded to escape.”

― Christopher Hitchens

The tipping point is not for the two extremes, one side who believes that Trump was robbed of the election by a long dead Latin American dictator and that wearing a mask in public will make their dicks fall off, and the other side is filled with race and gender-obsessed demagogues raging about the phantom menace of systemic marginalization by all things white. Same lunacy, different clothes.

No, the tipping point is for those of us who heed the warning: "Beware the conspiracy theorists for they will eat all your paste and mumble to themselves in line at the Arby's."

Do we leap off the cliff of Facebook-fed insanity or learn from Shirley Chisholm and maybe our new fairly elected president Uncle Joe?

"We still have to engage in compromises, the highest of all arts. Blacks can't do things on their own, nor can whites. When you have black racists and white racists it is very difficult to build bridges between communities. People say: 'Get whitey!' Oh, it's so frightening."

SOURCE

The highest of all arts, indeed.

Compromise is about building something rather than destroying something. It is about looking past the obvious differences and finding the more substantial similarities. It is humanist rather than racist or sexist. It is a stretch of the perspective to encompass all of us rather than some of us. Compromise and the commitment to do so is a rebuke to othering, aversion, and moralizing.

America isn't a great country because of our values or our democratic notions or our massive wealth. It isn't a great country because we invented things and have a big-ass military, or because Hollywood is here. America is a great country because we do our best despite all of the very human flaws we possess to practice this highest of all arts. The best of us succeed in tough but fair compromises. When they do, we all benefit.

#compromise #Shirley Chisholm #Christopher Hitchens #political sectarianism #America's tipping point

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quentinquill · 4 years

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A Goat and a Stoat and a Wonderfully Ordinary Morning

Shimmering white as a cracked oyster, a pale sun slithers above the horizon. Like ships, the great mountains sail wistfully on grey seas of mist, covered in bumpy masses of black barnacles. Waves of fog twist and twirl around the dark hulls before breaking against their strong and silent prows. Flashes of colour crest the mists. Birds, vibrant in the morning light, glide gracefully through a swaying sky.

These mornings are the most perfect to walk in. The air is cool and still as I follow the road curving through a shadowy forest. Above me, canopies of black lace brush against a periwinkle sky and fill with the melodies of birdsong that sunrise always brings. There is a rustle in the undergrowth and a pair of bright yellow eyes flashes as a fox turns and scampers away. My dog’s ears prick up at the sound as she happily trots beside me. She has a funny little trot, where her hind legs don’t quite follow her front ones and instead skip along ever so slightly to her right side, almost as if they were trying to overtake them. Suddenly she rushes forward and dives into the long grass, only to reappear moments later further down the road with her nose to the ground and tail high in the air.

The beginning of our walk skirts the edges of a trailing little town, known as Cloudstom, which flings itself across the forested valley and rolling foothills beneath the austere Grey Mountains. The road brings us around a small lake nestled among low mounds of short green grass. On such mornings, the water sprites flicker upon the lake’s glassy surface like dragonflies, their lucent wings catching the pale morning light.

The road then turns and runs alongside the town centre before bringing us up a steep hill and home again. Our home, much like a startled echidna, clings to the side of the grassy slope, holding itself curled up tight, with its feet buried in the soil. The wind often comes and busies itself around the house like the curious nose of fox. It whistles through the cracks in the timbers and pulls at the window frames. Sniffing, snuffling, and sneaking. Even as we return home, the air is beginning to stir.

Now that it’s Spring the air skipping through the rooms has lost its biting chill. The windows, nearly all facing east, soak up the morning sun. It will be scorching in the Summer, but for now the sunlight is soft and pleasant as it dances on a soft breeze and lifts away the mists. The view is beautiful from my kitchen, and I distractedly begin to pack lunches for school.

The house-cat leaps silently onto the counter and curls her overly fluffy tail around her overly fluffy body. Her whiskers twitch and follow my hands, before one of her little paws sneaks out and pushes a strawberry to the floor. Wide green eyes stare at me, passively returning my glare. Swiftly she spins her head like an owl, her bright eyes turning to the window, where a small dragon has landed on the balcony. Perched on his two muscular legs, each ending in scythe-like talons, the dragon folds his leathery wings against his sides, his curved thumb claws gleaming gold in the sun. The cat slowly melts off the edge of the counter and slinks across the floor towards the windowsill. With careful, slow precision she climbs up behind a wide pot plant sitting on the sill, and inches her paws through the leaves. Her tail flicks behind her, and her jaw chatters. She gathers her paws beneath her and quick as a whip leaps at the glass with a muffled smack.

In the middle of preening his mottled red scales with a stubby snout, the dragon looks up carefully and peers at the daring, and undaunted, feline. For a few long seconds they regard each other before the silence is sharply broken with a loud bump upstairs, and the dragon launches itself into the air.

My stepdaughter stumbles out of bed, groaning and grumbling. Her heavy tread thumps across the ceiling as she staggers to the bathroom, then thumps back again. I can picture her as she sleepily gathers her school clothing from the copious piles of possessions scattered on her floor, groping in her drawers for a pair of clean white socks, and finally sitting despairingly on the bed for a few moments as her mind becomes accustomed to its conscious state. Abigail is not a morning person.

Slow thuds down the carpeted stairs herald Abigail’s arrival, and she appears in the kitchen, bleary eyed and somewhat cross. I can’t help smiling at her dishevelled red hair that closely resembles the bushy tail of this morning’s fox.

“Good morning kiddo,” she doesn’t answer me but heads straight for the pantry, and in between cluttering a bowl and a spoon onto the counter, banging the fridge door shut, and spilling the milk and cereal she mumbles in that slow waling voice so typical of children;

“Why does Dad have to go to work?” Abigail stares at her bowl sadly. It’s a question that has been asked, and answered, a thousand times before. This morning it comes from her disappointment at not being up to give her Dad a good bye kiss, so I try to be patient with her as I once again enter a circulatory discussion with a twelve year old, who does not yet understand why she doesn’t have exactly what she wants exactly when she wants it.

Abigail takes her breakfast to the living room, her dejection disappearing at a sudden remembrance of an extraordinarily funny meme she wants to send to her mum. I finish making her and her sister’s lunch and wipe down the bench, before ascending the stairs to wake Mackenzie.

Buried beneath her quilt, deep within a dark den with thick curtains pulled tight against the sunlight, Mackenzie snores softly. Her thumb is pressed against her cheek, and her little mouth forms a perfect o. I brush her soft blonde curls from her face and whisper her name. The snoring stops, but her breath remains slow and even.

“Mackenzie,” I say again, a little louder. Her face scrunches up. “Come on honey, time to wake up.” She stretches her body like a cat, her hands making little fists, and she curls up into a ball. I shake her shoulder gently, and she unfurls again blinking in the dim light. I help her sit up, and she rubs her eyes, yawning.

She asks a drawn out, “why?” but proceeds to emerge from the depths of her quilt.

“You are so cute, like a little squirrel.”

She looks at me indignantly, “I am not a squirrel!” And I laugh as I leave her to get dressed. “You’re a goat!” She exclaims in mock anger, just as I reach her doorway, and she sits there looking rather pleased with herself.

“A goat!?”

“Yes, a goat!” There is a dull throb in my forehead, just above each temple. Reaching up, my fingers find hard ridges. I dash to Mackenzie’s mirror and see two bony spikes are arching over my head to form dull points. Horns. Goat horns.

Mackenzie is cackling with laughter, holding her stomach and rolling on the bed.

I point a finger at her, laughing, and bleat “then you’re a stoat!” She stops giggling and looks at me with a puzzled grin.

“What’s a stoat?” Even as she asks her nose and mouth draw in to a little black point, and several whiskers pop out. She leaps out of bed squeaking and a skinny, furry tail follows her. Rushing to the mirror beside me, it’s my turn to giggle as she pokes her tiny nose and inspects her now pointed and rather fuzzy ears. She glares at me. I turn around and sticking straight up from the waistband of my leggings is a short hairy tail. I wiggle it at Mackenzie and she chirps with a shrill laugh.

I give my precious girl a hug, and tell her I’ll make breakfast. Walking down the stairs, I feel my horns shrink and my tail disappear, leaving a faint itch. As I enter the kitchen I glance at the cat, still sulking in the pot plant. It’s going to be a good day.

#fantasy #dragons #morning walks #magic #children #pets

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